Fool Me Once
by emeraldonix
Summary: An unidentifiable presence has been following Team Seven around and Sakura is determined to figure out who it is. Meanwhile, a hidden plot is unfolding in the shadows of Konoha and the young kunoichi will soon find herself stumbling into the thick of it.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello, it's been a while. Ever since the end of Naruto I've felt this need to write a Sakura-centric story where there is a more satisfying character growth. While reading Naruto I loved her character, but something about the final dozen or so chapters left me feeling so empty. Even though the pairings I shipped the entire series manifested, in the end they were awkward and forced, and I want to write something that hopefully will give me the closure I never felt I got. Pairings undecided. I hope you enjoy!**

 **Chapter 1**

She can sense the presence again. It's hovering on the edge of her perception, but she knows they are there. And she thinks they're starting to figure out that she is aware, because they keep a wider perimeter every day. At first they were only around when she was training with her team. She thought maybe it was an Anbu agent watching over Naruto (she knew he was the Jinchuriki because she could feel the menacing chakra underneath his), but she felt the presence in the Land of Waves when she was reaching out with her chakra looking for Zabuza in order to protect their client. What she discovered was not only her sensei, the hunter nin, and her two teammates and the boy Haku, but also an unknown shinobi heavily cloaked in a genjutsu. Sakura can usually sense both the depth of a person's chakra pool and nature, but with the genjutsu in place she couldn't even begin to guess. Even when Kakashi-sensei is suppressing his chakra signature to his fullest ability she can still analyze it to some degree.

Ever since discovering it followed her team even out of the village, Sakura started regularly checking her surroundings. It followed them everywhere she discovered, even occasionally when she was on her own; usually when she was at the library reading about genjutsu (to figure out how they were hiding themselves from her) or when she was meditating before dawn at the practice field, waiting for her team. Meditation was when she would come closest to breaking through the genjutsu, but she has yet to puncture the impossibly dense cloak of chakra. She might as well have been punching a brick wall with her bare knuckles.

Now she is sensing the presence again, but it is much closer than usual. This makes her nervous, especially because both of her teammates are unconscious, showing no signs of waking up anytime soon. Naruto's chakra is agitated from whatever that monster of a man did to his seal. The snake also did something to Sasuke's chakra. It's almost like there's an infection in his chakra circulatory system, stemming from the black mark on his neck. Both are burning up and the only thing she can do about it is keep a cool cloth on each of their foreheads and keep watch until either they miraculously wake up or the test is over with and they fail. With each passing hour she is almost hoping for the latter. The only other alternative seems to be they are discovered and they all die because she is incapable of protecting them.

Sakura's heart drops into her stomach when she senses three chakra signatures headed straight for her. She has all three of their chakra signatures suppressed, but they are either highly trained sensory ninja above Kakashi's caliber or using some ulterior way to track them. When a team of sound nin land in the clearing twenty feet away, Sakura senses the chakra radiating in the air and realizes one of them is using sound waves as a form of echolocation.

"Well, well what do we have here." The girl says, her smirk taunting as she steps in front of the two boys. "A little girl protecting her two pathetic teammates. I almost feel bad about taking your scroll."

Sakura quickly scrambles for her backpack and pulls out the scroll. "Here, take it!" She yells desperately as she holds it out. "Just take it and leave, please. I promise we won't come after you!"

The girl cackles. "Oh, we'll make sure you don't." The shorter boy to her right cracks his knuckles and holds both hands out in front of him, palms turned toward Team 7. Sakura gasps when she sees the hollow metal pipes jutting from his skin. The scar tissue around them is grotesque and causes a shudder to run down Sakura's spine as she imagines the intolerable pain he must have suffered when his body was modified like that. Then she mentally slaps herself. She should be feeling sympathy for her enemy.

Rising from her kneeling position, Sakura discards the scroll behind her, recognizing that they have no intention of accepting her peace offering. She falls into her awkward fighting stance, a kunai clutched in both hands in front of herself, pointy end angled awkwardly forward toward her opponents. The girl and shorter boy mockingly laugh at her obvious inexperience, falling into much more practiced stances.

The girl attacks first, lazily swiping at Sakura, almost scratching her cheek. Sakura clumsily stumbles to her right, directly into the path of the short boy's wind attack. She performs a substitution jutsu in the knick of time, using the momentary confusion it causes to attack the taller boy in an attempt to take him hostage. He must be the one with the echolocation ability though, because without even looking he blocks her kunai with his metal arm. Sakura jumps back when he swipes at her and bites her lip so hard to quell her fear it bleeds. She has never had to face an enemy by herself before, let alone three all well above her in terms of skill and experience.

Before fear can overwhelm her senses, Sakura forces herself to evaluate the situation, making a mental list of all of her advantages and disadvantages. They have the advantages in taijutsu, ninjutsu, numbers, sensing, and experience. Sakura has her intelligence and chakra control. The odds are not in her favor. Nevertheless, she racks her brain for any ways to negate some of their advantages. There's nothing she can do about their taijutsu, ninjutsu, or experience, so she decides to focus on taking down the numbers and sensing abilities. While researching genjutsu and the presence that follows her team everywhere, Sakura came across several sensory jamming genjutsu. While the chakra sensing jamming genjutsu wouldn't be very effective, perhaps the one that creates the illusion of several physical presences would work. If she can confuse the sensor by convincing him that there are several presences closing in on him, she might be able to drive a kunai into his neck before he realizes what she has done.

Wasting no time, Sakura attacks the shorter boy once again. He attacks her as she predicted he would and she performs the genjutsu right before the substitution jutsu. Since she's never tried it before it's a little shaky, but the larger boy's chakra indicates he is lousy at genjutsu so it should still work…

And then the girl interferes and grabs Sakura by the hair before flinging her to the ground. Too late Sakura realizes that the girl's chakra signature is that of a genjutsu specialist. "That was a pretty pathetic illusion, brat." She spits at Sakura, glancing at her teammate. "Dosu you should be ashamed you fell for that. She fucked it up pretty badly. She's probably only ever practiced it on her pathetic teammates. How does it feel to be as weak as a twelve year old?"

The larger boy growls in a show of aggression, but before he can reply, Sakura takes advantage of their distraction and kicks at the girl's legs. The sound nin steps out of range clumsily and Sakura takes that moment to pull shuriken from her weapons pouch and launch an attack. One knicks her enemy's cheek and slices off a tendril of her dark hair, but the rest fly harmlessly past, and Sakura curses herself for not honing her basic skills before heading into these exams. Being able to properly aim under pressure would be really fucking useful right now.

Sakura's mind keeps flashing back to her team's fight with Zabuza and Haku. She was only searching for Zabuza, and that was overwhelming enough. Now she has three enemies, granted not as powerful, but still far more skilled than herself. She feels the now familiar fog of fear start to cloud her senses. On the hidden mist mission, the fear was worse than the mist. While fog takes out her sense of sight, fear inhibits her most powerful weapon; her mind.

In the split second she is unfocused, the third enemy saw the opening in her defenses and rushed from behind. Sakura's scream is a few seconds later than the sound of the kunai hitting the bone in her shoulder. The rush of adrenaline and pain cause her body to shake, but her focus is back and sharper than ever. She drives her own hand backwards and slashes with her own kunai at the artery in the boy's leg.

She expects a grunt or maybe even a yell, but the scream of agony from behind her makes her flinch. She rolls away when both of his hands leave the kunai embedded in her left shoulder. She doesn't dare pull it out, knowing she'll bleed out in minutes without anyone to help her apply pressure. She looks back to the boy and almost vomits at the sight of his mangled groin. The blood is gushing from his half severed penis and he'll be dead in minutes if his teammates don't get him out of here and help him. She feels a sense of relief when she realizes she just ended this battle. She feels no guilt, which surprises her, but she tucks this away to analyze it later. She has no time for worrying about her mental state at the moment.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I probably won't have an updating schedule, but right now I'm feeling motivated and have a couple chapters mapped out so hopefully they won't be too spaced out. This is the first story I'm ever publishing that I haven't already written everything, and I don't even know what my end game is. I'm hoping that by writing it in chunks and reading feedback, I'll figure out where I'm going. All I know is that I want a badass Sakura and a better plot than the last hundred chapters of Naruto. I want more ninja and less superheroes taking turns blowing each other up with bigger and bigger attacks.**

 **The next few chapters will skip chunks of time, mostly because I only need to make minor tweaks to the original Naruto plot in the beginning before I make my own as they age, and I'm assuming if you're reading this you know all about Team Seven's genin days and will be able to read between the lines.**

 **Enough rambling from me, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 2**

The presence has been hovering close by ever since it re-appeared an hour or so ago, and focusing on their blanket of cloaking chakra is the only thing keeping Sakura from slipping into a coma just like her teammates. The kunai is still wedged into her shoulder which is stopping her from bleeding out, but after hours of the wound seeping out a slow stream, she is feeling the effects. The adrenaline has worn off, and the pain and knowledge of the severity of the situation are eating Sakura alive.

Sakura is so focused on the mysterious follower that she doesn't even notice the grey haired young man until he is almost right in front of her. She jumps and reaches for a kunai, only to gasp in pain as she jostles her left arm and shooting pains throb from her wound. A fresh trail of blood oozes from her shoulder and leaves another warm sticky trail down her back.

"That looks like a nasty wound, would you like me to take a look?" The man is smiling down at her, and Sakura is too tired and stressed to analyze why she feels so inclined to trust him. She nods and weakly shuffles so her left shoulder is exposed to him. At this point, he could kill her no matter what, so there's no point in not letting him see her wound.

"It looks to be a couple hours old. What made them leave? Did they take your scroll?" She feels his fingers ghost around the punctured flesh and flinches.

"No. I'll trade it if you pull out the kunai and help me bind the wound. Let us live and it's yours." Sakura clutches the scroll tightly to her chest with her right arm, her will to live pushing its way through the cloud of doubt that had settled in the past hours. Who cares if they don't pass this stupid test. They'll be alive and can take it again when they're ready. She doesn't know what Kakashi-sensei was thinking entering them only a few months after they graduated the academy. He hasn't even taught the boys to walk on water yet, but he thinks they're ready to fight their way through this god forsaken forest.

"Relax, I don't need your scroll. Mine was stolen anyways. I just want help reaching the end so I can escape this death trap. My teammates abandoned me." She feels him take a firm grip of the kunai and braces herself for the pain.

She barely has time to yelp before the pain is numbed by a soothing chakra. "You know how to use medical ninjutsu?" She asks, astounded. "And you're only taking the chunin exams?"

"I'm afraid my medical skills far outmatch my fighting skills. The medic curse is inescapable." The young man replies, making quick work of her injury. Within a minute she feels the chakra dissipate and the pain doesn't return. Experimentally she rotates her left arm, slowly, then more aggressively. It's as good as new.

"That's still pretty handy." Sakura mutters, mentally making a note that maybe when she's no longer a defenseless gangly mess of a shinobi she should look into learning a few tricks of the trade.

"Could you possibly wake my teammates up? I just want to get to the end to, but I won't leave them. Sakura crawls to Naruto and Sasuke and is relieved to find their fevers are dying down. "They seem to be doing better than they were this morning." She notes aloud.

The man nods and crouches down next to her, reaching first to Naruto, then Sasuke. "My name is Kabuto, by the way."

Sakura blushes in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude, and you just saved my life. I'm Sakura." She smiles while internally berating herself. She should be groveling at his feet, not treating him like her personal servant. He could have just left her or killed her, yet he chose to stay and help.

"I'm afraid I can't do anything for them, but they do seem to be almost recovered from whatever happened." He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he stands up. "It's getting dark, so we might as well stay here for the night. Your chakra levels are probably low from whatever happened earlier, so you aren't in any shape to carry one of them. I'll look for some foliage to use as camouflage. Get some rest."

Sakura smiles gratefully. "Thank you, Kabuto-san. You are one of the kindest people I have ever met."

It's the dead of night when the genjutsu ensnares Sakura. It isn't a subtle one to affect her senses without her knowledge. Whomever cast this wanted her to know she was ensnared. The effect is jarring, and if her body were not frozen by the effects of the jutsu she would have screamed.

She fights the genjutsu at first but is overwhelmed by the strength of the illusion and the caster's hold over her. She realizes quickly that she is being shown a scene, and that she knows the people in it. It's the two non-maimed members of the sound team and Kabuto standing beneath the unmistakable towering trees of the Forest of Death. From the dappled lighting, she assumes it is early afternoon. Her fight with the trio was in the late morning and her encounter with Kabuto was right before sunset.

"Could… Could you heal him?" The girl asks, glancing behind Kabuto at a figure lying at the base of a tree trunk. It's the smaller of the two men that Sakura dismembered.

"He'll live, but there wasn't anything to salvage. I can't regrow dicks." The large man snorts and the girl lightly blushes, guilt and sorrow crossing her features.

"Looks like you'll have to find someone else to fuck, Kin." The taller man sneers.

The kunoichi doesn't even glance up and Sakura's heart constricts. She had feelings for that boy. That's something Sakura can sympathize with. Now she feels a little guilt, which is oddly reassuring.

"How many miles away are they? I need to make sure none of them die, otherwise our plan may not succeed." Kabuto wipes his bloody hands on his pants and pushes his glasses up.

"They're about ten miles to the southeast. Near the bottom corner of the forest. The bitch didn't pull the kunai out of the wound, so as long as she didn't do anything stupid she'll be alive. The other two seemed fine, just unconscious." The tall man replies.

Kabuto nods, looking in the direction indicated. "I'll head out shortly then. You should carry Zaku to the end with you. I assume you have both scrolls, yes? We need the two of you in the preliminaries. Our Lord needs a continued reason to be present at the matches."

"Yes, Kabuto-san." The tall man dips his head, and after a moment the girl follows suit. "We live to serve Lord Orochimaru."

~~~  
Sakura awakens at dawn, sitting up too quickly in fright. Her vision goes black momentarily as blood rushes from her head, but it returns after a moment as her body rights itself. It felt to real to be just a nightmare. It felt just like the time Kakashi-sensei ensnared her in the genjutsu where he showed her a fatally wounded Sasuke.

She reaches out with her chakra to try and figure out who cast the genjutsu, but the only thing she finds is the presence about a hundred feet directly in front of her. Slowly she pieces together what happened. Whoever it is just showed her one of their memories through a very powerful, very vivid genjutsu. She felt like she was there.

Slowly standing and assessing her surroundings, Sakura notices Kabuto is not within her sensing range. Naruto isn't either. Sasuke is sitting with his back against the tree and staring at her with a raised eyebrow. "You look like hell." He informs her.

Sakura is so startled she almost stumbles as she runs to him and wraps her arms around his shoulders. He stays limp in her hold and waits a couple seconds before shrugging her off. "You smell like it too."

Sakura blushes in mortification as she realizes that all of the dried blood from yesterday is crusted onto her dress and emitting a very unpleasant, slightly metallic scent. Mixed with her sweat and tears, it's probably the worst she's ever smelled in her life.

Naruto and Kabuto went to find breakfast. I stayed behind to make sure you didn't get yourself killed." He tells her as she continues to wallow in her humiliation. "We need to leave as soon as we eat if we want to make it to the finish line. Kabuto says he'll give us his scroll if we get him to the center building. We're about three hours away if you don't slow us down."

Without thinking, Sakura snaps. "What did you just say?" Her embarrassed blush quickly becomes an infuriated flush. "I guarded your vulnerable body for hours, got stabbed, and still guarded your body for hours, and you have the nerve to insinuate that _I_ am being the weak link?"

Sasuke's eyes have narrowed while Sakura's go wide. She's never spoken like this to Sasuke before. She's also never been this offended by him. Slowly her shock goes away and her fury takes over once again. They stay locked in their silent glaring match until Naruto and Kabuto return.

The trip to the center of the forest is blessedly uneventful, and Sakura almost weeps tears of joy as they cross through into the safety of the building. She watched Kabut carefully the whole way, but was careful to hide her suspicion. She has no idea who this person is that cast the genjutsu on her and has been following her team since its formation. She doesn't know if they're a reliable source of information. What she does know is Kabuto healed her wound and didn't kill any of them while they slept, nor did he make any attempt to betray them during the trek to the center building. That doesn't mean her instincts weren't screaming at her the whole time.

"This is where I leave you guys. The earth scroll, as promised." He hands over the scroll to Sasuke who quickly pockets it. Kabuto waves and Sakura bows in gratitude as he turns to exit the barren room they've entered and go further into the compound. "I'll be around for the rest of the exams cheering for you guys. I think I need a break from missions after this. Thanks again guys!"


	3. Chapter 3

**N/A: Thanks for the reviews and favs! It makes my day everytime I get a notification! I'm realizing that it might take a while to set up a reveal for the 'mystery presence' and even longer to explain it and work it in, so it's shaping up to be the longest story I've ever tackled. I'll do my best to stay motivated, but writing it in these short chunks is really helping me not get bored. Plus, I'm not planning too far ahead, which also helps. Thanks again, and enjoy chapter 3!**

"Begin!"

Sakura charges right away, trying not to let Ino's taunts get to her head. While the years of their friendship turned rivalry strengthened her, they didn't erase her insecurities and Ino knows it. Her appearance and temper are the sorest spots, and Ino knows if she can get a rise out of Sakura, she'll win the fight easily.

But Sakura knows how to get under Ino's skin too. She knows Ino feels the weight of carrying on her clan legacy. Her father hasn't declared who will inherit the head title, even though she is his only child. Many of her male cousins are always hanging about, and always trying to show her up and make her look weak and inferior. Ino had a rough time getting the hang of her clan's mind body switch technique, so she's always a little over-eager to show it off now, even when it isn't the time or place. One-on-one in open combat is just about the worst time ever, which is exactly why Sakura is egging her on.

"You know, I've never actually seen you successfully use the technique. Remember that time when you tried to get into Sasuke-kun's mind but missed, and then-"  
"SHUT IT FOREHEAD!" Ino whips a kunai at Sakura's skull and the pinkette barely dodges. She feels it slice through her hair and the fabric of her hitai ate and the headband slips from her forehead to clatter noisily on the stone floor. Sakura's bangs fall over her forehead and she swipes at them to get them out of her eyes. They just fall back into place.

Ino quickly schools her rage into a smirk as she twirls a kunai on her finger. "Looks like you never gave up those bangs. What's the matter? Can't handle not having them to hide behind? I don't blame you, that billboard brow of yours is like a practice target." Her tone is so haughty Sakura sees red and charges again.

"Gotcha." Is the last thing Sakura hears before the world goes black.

She feels as though she is floating, yet her feet are planted on something firm. Sakura opens her eyes and sees Ino is still standing in front of her, looking confused.

"How are you here? You shouldn't be able to exist when I'm in your head!" Ino looks irate, but Sakura doesn't miss the uncertainty in her posture. There's the lack of self-confidence Sakura was looking for.

"Everyone always makes fun of my forehead, but at least it's good for something. I've got a lot more room for intelligence and willpower." Sakura pokes her brow with her thumb and smiles sadly. She doesn't know where that thought just came from, but she's going to hold on to it for the times when she can't stop glaring at it in the mirror.

"This is impossible though! How are you doing this?" Ino stomps over to Sakura and reaches out, her expression startled when her hand passes through Sakura.

Sakura shrugs. "Must just be a manifestation of my suppressed temper. You of all people should know how I can be." Her lips slowly curl into a snarl. "Now get the hell out of my head, Pig."  
~~~

"Get up Sakura-chan! You can do it!" Naruto yells frantically. If Kakashi-sensei weren't holding the back of his jacket he would have already toppled over the railing.

While her broken nose and black eye are painful, they're nothing compared to the kunai that was in her shoulder for hours the day before. Sakura rolls over onto her stomach and very carefully pushes herself up onto her hands and knees before using the wall to stand upright. No way is she losing to Ino-Pig.

"Winner, Haruno Sakura."

Sakura smiles softly, but she feels hollow inside. Ino is scream crying across the room. Sakura heard the sickening crack when her fist hit the blonde's jaw and can only imagine the agony. Crying is probably just making it hurt worse too.

Ignoring the medic that offers her an arm, Sakura limps her way around the perimeter of the wall until she is near Ino. Dropping to all fours, she crawls to her childhood friend's side, where she stops hesitantly sitting back on her heels. Ino's eyes are glazed over with pain, and instinctively Sakura takes her hand; the one that isn't broken from punching Sakura in the face with sloppy form.

"I'm sorry, Ino-chan." She says quietly. A tear slips down the pinkette's cheek and she quickly wipes it away. She's surprised when Ino squeezes the hand holding hers and she returns the gesture quickly.

"Miss, we need to attend to Yamanaka-san immediately. We need to set her jaw before she does any more damage to the joint and you need to be seen for your concussion and broken nose." A medic lays a hand on Sakura's shoulder and she flinches out of surprise.

"Wait! Let me stay with her! At least until her family gets here." Sakura doesn't let go of the blonde's hand. The medic gives her a sympathetic look.

"Alright, your symptoms seem to be minor and you didn't lose consciousness, but you need to move back so we can put her on a stretcher. You can be in the same room but we need space to work. And no crying. You'll only upset her more, which will only make her cry more, and then she'll mess up the wires we have to put in her mouth to set her jaw."

The look of horror on Sakura's face almost makes the medic change her mind, but Sakura forces a mask of apathy to settle on her face and follows the medic out of the dome and into the hallways leading to the front exit. An ambulance is waiting and Sakura crawls in after Ino has been lifted inside. The blonde's sobs dwindle to sniffles as morphine enters her system and Sakura strokes her hair comfortingly during the short ride to the hospital.

"It'll be alright, Ino-chan. I think I know someone who can help."

"Thank you again, Kabuto-san. I'm sure if she were still awake, our daughter would be thanking you from the bottom of her heart." Ino's mother bows at the waist and places a hand to her chest in a show of gratitude. Her father dips his head as well.

Kabuto rubs the back of his head and pushes up his glasses. "Oh don't worry about it. When Sakura-chan contacted me and asked me to help her friend I was happy to help."

"Where did you learn to heal like that? Did Lady Tsunade herself train you?" Inoichi inquires.

Kabuto shakes his head and a faraway look crosses his face. "I learned from the headmistress at the Konoha orphanage when I was young. It's been nearly a decade since I first started, and I'm afraid it's my only skill. Sakura-san helped me escape the Forest of Death during the second round of the Chunin Exams."

"The headmistress wouldn't have happened to be Nono Yakushi, would it?" Ino's mother asks, her eyes suddenly filling with an emotion that could only be bitter sweet.

"The very one." Kabuto replies after a slight hesitation. Sakura noticed but says nothing, interested to see how Ino's mother knew that. "Did you know her?"

Ino's mother nods. "She was a dear friend. I used to teach flower arranging classes at the orphanage occasionally before I had Ino."

Kabuto dips his head. "Then I'm sure you know how caring she was to all of us. What did you say your name was, m'am?"

Ino's mother smiles. "My name is Jin Yamanaka, but you may call me Jin if you would like. I hope you'll stop by the flower shop sometime. I'd like to give you a token of our appreciation."

Kabuto smiles. "Thank you very much, Jin. I look forward to it." He turns to Sakura. "It looks like someone already tended to your injuries, and I'm a little low on chakra. Are you alright?" Sakura nods and he smiles. "Alright, then I'll see you again soon."

Sakura nods, and on impulse reaches out to catch his arm. "Kabuto, um… Thank you."

He smiles warmly. "My pleasure."

"I'm sorry if I seem needy, but could you perhaps teach me a few medical techniques? Maybe before the exam?" Sakura noticed the presence has been hanging nearer ever since Kabuto entered the room. It's in the room with them. She hasn't forgotten the genjutsu from the forest either. She wants to keep an eye on him.

He nods. "Sure, Sakura-chan. I'll see you later this week, then."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm just realizing that because I'm writing this story in chunks, the mood shifts from chapter to chapter. I considered editing to fix this, but decided I like the variety it adds. Hopefully you guys don't mind…**

 **Soon I'll start diverging from canon more than the minor dialogue changes I've made, and I'll probably slow down the pace of the story as well to help with characterization of several characters.**

 **Anyways, enjoy chapter 4!**

With a suppressed scream of frustration, Sakura unfolds her legs from her meditation pose and allows her chakra to dissipate so that she sinks into the stream. It's hot, she has almost no sleep from watching over Sasuke while he was at the hospital to make sure he stayed, and Kakashi abandoned her to her own devices until after the final round of the duels. Now she needs to train for the final round of the chunin exam, but she can't focus because of that damned presence. It's lingering a lot closer than usual and Sakura can't think about anything else.

"I know you're there!" Sakura calls out in a fit of anger. "You're always there! And I know you know that I know, so will you just quit it already?" Sakura waits a few seconds but gets no response. "Did Kakashi-sensei put you up to this?" Still no response.

In a burst of anger driven determination, Sakura closes her eyes and focuses all of her attention on the being. Like always, she can't get past the cloaking genjutsu. But unlike usual, she is past pretending like she hasn't noticed it. With a war cry she uses her chakra like a lance to knock away the shield of the genjutsu The person is taken aback and Sakura's eyes snap open when she is able to get a brief reading on the location. Approximately twenty feet away perched in a tree is a figure that was not visible before. Sakura waits for the cloak to envelop them again, but they do nothing.

Sakura can get a read on their chakra signature now and is surprised by their chakra pool. She thought it would be much deeper than Kakashi-sensei's since they are able to hold up such an excellent genjutsu for extended periods of time, but their reserves are about even with her sensei's. He must have excellent chakra control, then. She can also tell that he has an affinity for fire ninjutsu and yin release. She tries to probe more deeply, but the cloak goes back up and when Sakura tries to puncture the genjutsu again it is even more thickly layered than before and she doesn't have enough time to break it before the presence is suddenly gone.

Sakura sticks her face in the water to smother her tantrum before pulling herself from the stream and marching off in search of a bingo book so she can look through a list of the top genjutsu users. Now that she's seen the figure she at least knows they're a male with dark hair. That gives her something to go on, unlike before when she was just throwing kunai in the dark. Kakashi will be her best bet, although that means she needs to figure out where he is training Sasuke.

Still soaking wet, Sakura storms through the village, a combination of her anger at Kakashi for abandoning her and frustration over the mysterious man driving her to be indifferent to the stares she's attracting. She checks all of Team Seven's usual spots first, and when she stops by the weapon shop she knows Kakashi favors because of the cute clerk she learns that they were just in a few hours ago. Kakashi didn't say where they were going but he did mention that he'd be back to pick up an order of explosive tags around lunch. Sakura checks the clock on the wall and decides to just wait him out, taking a seat outside of the shop on a bench. Her clothes dry quickly in the sun and she reapplies sunscreen to her already burnt face before pulling out a genjutsu theory book and diving in. She's finished with the visual genjutsu section and halfway through the intro chapter on auditory genjutsu when Sasuke sits on the bench to her right, smelling of sweat, soot, and ozone.

"Are you learning lightning ninjutsu?" Sakura asks, examining her teammate's chakra signature. She never bothered to observe it closely before, but now she can sense the affinity.

"Were you spying on me?" Sasuke accuses, his eyes narrowing.

Sakura's cheeks burn and she immediately averts her eyes. "No! I can just smell ozone on you, is all. And now I can sense it in your chakra signature."

Sasuke is silent and she chances a glance out of the corner of her eye to see what his reaction is. Eventually his blank expression melts and he smirks, replying "so you were smelling me? That's even weirder than spying on me."

Sakura almost combusts from embarrassment on the spot, but before she can finish sputtering and find the words to explain, Kakashi-sensei exits the weapon shop and Sakura jumps to her feet and runs over, welcoming the diversion. She channels her anger at her sensei in order to forget the burning humiliation she endured moments ago.

"You _abandoned_ me!" She yells shrilly, poking Kakashi-sensei in the chest. "I was meditating for hours because you didn't give me anything to do! How will I beat Dosu if no one trains me?"

Kakashi dramatically checks his hearing in one ear after her verbal assault and lowers his book before grinning at his student. "Well good morning to you too, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura growls and is seriously considering making a grab for Icha Icha to shred it to bits when he ruffles her hair. "Don't worry. I didn't forget about you, I was just giving you the morning off after you sat up and watched that one all night." He points at Sasuke who scowls in response.

"I didn't ask her to." The Uchiha grumbles, nose upturned.

"Sasuke-kun, you're just as bad as Naruto and Kakashi-sensei about staying in the hospital. I knew if I didn't stay you'd just leave." Sakura doesn't even look at him, keeping her glare trained on her sensei. "And just what do you have planned for me? And don't you dare say chakra control exercises. I need to learn something practical and fast."

Kakashi isn't even looking at her, having turned back around to stare at the clerk in the weapon shop. Sakura stomps on his foot and he glances back down at her. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about what I should do for your training."

"But you said-"

"Kakashi, I challenge you to one hundred laps around the village on our hands! We must break our tied record!" Gai seems to materialize from nowhere and Sakura almost jumps out of her skin as she stumbles backwards from the overzealous Jonin sensei.

"Sorry Gai. I need to train my students today." Kakashi tries to put his arm around Sakura's shoulders for emphasis, but she steps out of his range and crosses her arms.

"You just said you didn't know what to have me do." Sakura glares at her sensei, unwilling to be his excuse when he's being this inconsiderate of her.

Sakura swears there's an evil gleam in Kakashi's eye before it closes and crinkles, indicating he is smiling. "Gai, is Neji training with the Hyuga clan in preparation for the final round?"

"Why yes, he is." Gai suddenly goes from his nice guy pose he seems to be in perpetually to one that resembles a wilting plant. "And Lee is in the hospital and Tenten told me she was taking the month off to work on expanding her weapon repertoire. The youth that once surrounded me is dwindling."

Kakashi taps his book to his chin. "Well, you know all three of my genin made it into the final round, and I'm having trouble trying to train all three at once. "Perhaps you would like to take Sakura on as your student for a while? She is full of youthful spirit!"

Sakura's jaw drops and she is about to vehemently protest when Gai drops to his knees in front of her and grasps one of her hands as he weeps tears of joy. "Sakura-san, I would be honored to take you under my wing. Your youthful potential is exponential and it would be my pleasure to help you access it."

Sakura is about to turn him down and run away before she can be dragged into five hundred laps around Konoha when she stops to consider this opportunity. While Gai is… out there, his prowess in taijutsu is well known and respected. Sakura's, on the other hand, is mediocre at best.

Looking from the spectacle Gai is making to her sensei, she mutters, "Kakashi-sensei, sometimes I really hate you."

After Sakura collapses on her face after only a lap around Konoha on her hands, Gai-sensei straps weights on her legs and joins her on a 100 lap run around the village. He was originally planning on 500, but after her abysmal performance on the lap on her hands, he sets a much lower goal. "Do not worry, Sakura-san! With my regimen, you will see great improvement before the exam! Your opponent will not know what hit him!"

"That's assuming I will be capable of getting out of bed and limping to the stadium." Sakura grumbles under her breath, her legs already cramping on the start of the twentieth lap.

At lap fifty Gai allows a water break, and Sakura finds that channeling chakra to the spasming muscles temporarily soothes them. She doesn't use it while they run though, because the whole point of the laps is to build up her stamina. Using chakra would be greatly cheating herself of the full benefit, so she pushes through the pain and manages to finish the one hundred laps. While she soaks her legs in the Konoha river and wraps her blistered feet, Gai runs fifty more laps in the time it would take her to run ten.

"Now Sakura-san, shall we work on your taijutsu form? I am not aware of what technique you favor, so perhaps a youthful spar would be best to start with so I can assess your abilities."

Sakura bites her tongue to keep from responding that she has no particular form. He'll figure that out soon enough. She drops into her typical fighting stance, weight centered and hands in fists protecting her chest and face. Gai-sensei stares at her for a moment before rising up onto the ball of his left foot and drawing his right knee to his chest. His arms are out straight to either side, and he holds the position for a few moments while sensei and pupil stare eachother down.

Sakura doesn't even register Gai-sensei's movement, he just seems to appear right in front of her. His strike is blocked by her left forearm, but she's knocked off balance by the simple hit and stumbles clumsily backwards. Gai-sensei sweeps her feet out from under her with a kick and in two seconds flat Sakura is on her back staring up at the sky.

"Sakura-san, when you are ready I have a few tips for your fighting stance and counterattacks." Gai-sensei informs her as he stares worriedly down at the miserable girl.

The second day is no better than the first. If anything, Sakura performs even worse since her entire body feels like it's on fire. The pain is so bad on the third day that she finds herself hoping that her legs just give out or that she'll get heat exhaustion and have a reason to hide in the hospital for a day or two.

Despite feeling like she's been to hell and back, Sakura makes time to visit Ino twice a day; once for lunch and once right before the sun sets. At first they don't have much to say, but growing accustomed to each other by the end of the week they're gossiping and telling stories like they're best friends again.

"I'm really sorry for what I said, Ino. I should never have brought up your insecurities like that. You'll be the clan her for sure; why else would your cousins be so bitter all of the time?" Sakura blurts out after a week of ignoring the two year break they took from one another.

Ino looks down at her hands. "I'm sorry for making fun of your forehead. I know it really bothers you, which it shouldn't by the way, but I was just so angry." She looks up and her blue eyes are glassy with tears. "And not just because of that stupid match."

Sakura gulps but forces herself to hold eye contact. She knows exactly what Ino is talking about. Sakura was the one that wended their friendship. She cut their bond. "Do you want to know why?" She says quietly.

After a moment, Ino nods. "But don't start making excuses or anything. That will just make me angrier, forh-... Sakura."

Sakura snorts. "It's okay when you call me forehead. Only you, though Ino-Pig." That gets a small smile out of the blonde. "Okay, well it sounds stupid now when I say it out loud, but I didn't end our friendship just because of Sasuke. I ended it because I felt like you were already fully bloomed and as long as I was in your shadow I had no hope of reaching my potential." Sakura blushes in embarrassment at the admission.

Ino leans back against her pillows and fiddles with her hands. After a couple minutes of silence she speaks. "Okay. I forgive you."

"What?"

"I forgive you, okay?" Another pause. "And I understand. I… I'm sorry for being so dominant all the time. I admit I did see you as a sidekick, and I typically treated you like it too. I'm sorry."

Sakura wipes at her eyes quickly and leans back in her chair, her relief at Ino's forgiveness and apology washing away any energy she has left.

Ino yawns to break the silence and stretches dramatically. "Now back to what we were talking about before. I need more details on this Kabuto. Is he cute?"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry for the long-ish break! Had a very busy few weeks. Here's chapter 5! I promise any questions will be answered eventually in the story don't worry. My plot holes are intentional!**

After another three days of being beaten black and blue, Sakura returns home from 5 am sunrise yoga with Gai-sensei to find a scroll on her bed. She looks at it to make sure it isn't a summons to the Hokage's office before bringing it with her to the bathtub. She finds that soaking her aching body before and after taijutsu practice with Gai-sensei helps with her soreness, and since she has to meet with Gai in two hours for a day full of pain, she plans to soak in a tub of hot water and soothing bath salts for a good while.

After settling in, Sakura unrolls the scroll and skims its contents. It's a ninjutsu scroll detailing the theory, handsigns, and chakra amounts necessary for the Body Flicker technique. Sakura has seen Kakashi-sensei, Zabuza, and Haku using it in battle, and she knows that's how ANBU move around so quickly, so Sakura figured shinobi didn't learn the skill until they were more advanced. Since it was probably Kakashi-sensei that broke into her house to drop off the scroll, she assumes her sensei must think she is ready for the technique, despite her preconceived notions. Maybe he isn't such a terrible sensei after all. Sakura skims the contents while sipping her tea, deciding to memorize it so she can start working on it after her taijutsu training. While her body is always exhausted after, her mind is still in functional form and her chakra reserves are basically full.

When the water turns lukewarm, Sakura hauls herself from the tub and quickly dresses before heading down to the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She used to always skip the meal, afraid the extra calories would make her gain weight and therefore unattractive, but out of necessity she has started eating it again. Training with Gai requires so much energy she needs all of the calories she can get. Plus, she's discovered she enjoys cooking and baking and does it whenever she can to unwind and distract herself from her physical aches. She's started delivering muffins and pastries to the Yamanaka flower shop and the local nursing home because there was no more counter space for her excess baked goods in her family's home anymore.

After a large breakfast of eggs, rice, and a yam she pulls on her ninja sandals for a light warmup jog to training ground six. Gai-sensei is always fifteen minutes early, so Sakura likes to be twenty so she has time to stretch a little on her own and get into the right frame of mind to deal with the exuberant man. He's demanding of her, yet he does so in such an encouraging and excited manner that Sakura is only exhausted, not frustrated. His proclamations of youth and the will of fire seem to give him an endless supply of energy. Meanwhile Sakura's only motivation is not dying in the final round of chunin exams at the hands of a vengeful Dosu. And lunch. She has fresh vegetables, rice, and an extra firm block of tofu just waiting to be sauted back in her refrigerator.

Gai gives her a two hour break after their one hundred laps and taijutsu kata training. Hours have passed and the sun is high and hot in the sky. Sakura strips out of her dress as soon as she is home, the fabric making a gross floping noise as it hits the tile floor of the laundry room. The fabric absorbs sweat and holds the moisture, which only makes Sakura warmer. There's just too much of it. The number of times in the past week and a half the stupid fabric has gotten in the way is ridiculous. She decides to stop by the Yamanaka flower shop after her afternoon training to see if Ino feels up for a bit of shopping. The blonde was just released from the hospital a couple days ago. Sakura hasn't had much of a chance to hear town gossip lately, but even she is aware that Tsunade Senju has returned to the village to answer a summons by the Third Hokage. She wouldn't be surprised if Ino has been following the woman around, since she's been Ino's idol since early childhood when they learned about her in kunoichi classes.

After finishing lunch and deciding to leave the dishes for later, Sakura heads back to the training grounds early to give the Body Flicker technique a try. Her first try she overshoots the targeted spot she picked for herself and smashes right into a tree. Her right leg and and arm are scratches and lightly bleeding from the bark digging into her skin and she starts muttering to herself. She almost misses the laugh and the feel of the presence suddenly nearby.

"Sakura-san! You are very early! I'm glad to see your eagerness and youth shining through and driving your hard work!" Gai appears at her left and she jumps.

"Gai-sensei, do you sense him?" Sakura blurts out, sick of whatever game the presence is playing. Whoever it is, she would love to see the Green Beast of Konoha kick their sorry ass into the sunset.

"Who, Sakura-san? Were you training with someone?" Gai-sensei looks around in confusion.

"Do you not feel that presence?" Sakura questions, pointing in the rough direction where the person is still hanging about.

"While ninjutsu isn't my strong suit Sakura-san, I assure you my sensing capabilities are at least proficient. I sense nothing." He looks worried. "While I applaud your youthful initiative, perhaps you shouldn't do so much extra training beyond our sessions. I fear the heat may be getting to you."

Sakura huffs and glares in the direction of the presence before stalking over to her bag. "You're right Gai-sensei, it must be the heat." She mutters, rolling her eyes when the presence moves to the treeline, presumably planning to stick around for a bit to watch.

"Ino, I don't know about this. I feel… exposed." Sakura is in a simply tank top and spandex in her and the blonde's favorite ninja retailer. Ino is holding a tank top in almost every imaginable color and is currently picking up a few more pair of the same shorts for Sakura.

"Stop being self conscious Forehead. You said the extra fabric was getting in the way, and this is the most breathable material in the store so hopefully you won't overheat as much anymore. Plus, it wouldn't be the end of the world to add some variety to the shades of your wardrobe. I can't remember the last time you didn't wear read, frankly."

"You wear purple all the time, Pig."

"It's my clan's colors. And none of my civilian clothing is purple."

"..."

"Stop being stubborn and get the clothing so we can go to that cafe you were talking about. I'm starving, Forehead!" Ino shoves the bundle of clothing at Sakura.

"Fine." Sakura grumbles as she heads to the changing room to put back on the civilian clothing she came in. The jean shorts and loose fitting red top are something she once never would have dreamt of wearing anywhere but her house on a lazy Sunday, but now she lives for the small comforts. She even ran into Sasuke earlier on her way to meet Ino and didn't even remember her casual appearance until after she was done conversing with him. He made no indication that he noticed either, in fact he actually asked her about her training instead of walking away.

While the two girls are waiting for their food at the outdoor cafe, Sakura spots Kabuto over Ino's shoulder. He's walking with the Jonin instructor of the sound squad Dosu is on, and Sakura feels herself tense. What is he up to? When they make eye contact she waves him over.

"Hi Kabuto! I haven't seen you for a few days. I've been meaning to stop by the hospital to look for you for some training. Would tomorrow around this time be okay?" Sakura inquires.

Kabuto smiles. "That should work just fine! I'm on Lady Tsunade's service until six, but after I'll be free."

Ino's eyes spark. "You're working with Lady Tsunade?" Kabuto nods and Ino slams her palms on the table, startling the pinkette and the young man. "That's so cool! I have to meet her. Could I shadow you at work tomorrow?" She grabs his arm, barely containing her excitement.

Kabuto's cheeks tinge a light red as he rubs the back of his head. "I suppose as long as you stay out of her way that would be alright. I'll met you at the front desk at seven am."

Sakura snorts, knowing Ino isn't a morning person. The blonde doesn't look even slightly perturbed though, and nods eagerly. "Thank you! For everything I mean. First you healed me and now you're doing me this huge favor! How can I ever repay you?"

Kabuto dips his head. "There is no need for payment, Ino-san. It's no trouble." He turns to Sakura. "Alright, well I have to go, but I'll see you tomorrow. Bring a few kunai. I plan on teaching you something you can use for your battle."

The hundred laps are nothing but a minor inconvenience as Sakura flies through her training with Gai in anticipation to meet with Kabuto. Not even the presence sours her mood as she practices the Body Flicker technique to help pass her idol time more quickly.

"Sakura-san, while I am loving the vigor and youth today, perhaps you should concentrate a little harder on your technique. Strikes less with your outer knuckles or you might break them." Gai blocks another of her strikes and Sakura flinches when she brusies said knuckles with her careless swing.

"Yes Gai-sensei, sorry. I'm just excited for later. I'm learnign a new jutsu!"

"Is Kakashi training you after all?"

"What? No, he's too lazy. It's jsut a friend. He's offered to show me a few medical techniques to sue in the cunin exam."

"...medical ninjutsu?" Gai-sensei stops the scrimmage so they can both get some water. "That takes years Sakura-san, not weeks. Who is this friend?"  
Sakura replies after taking a giant gulp of the now warm water she brought with. "Kakashi-sensei says my chakra control is excellent, so I think I can manage at least one technique. And Kabuto-san seems to think I'll be capable too."

Gai-sensei throws his hands up. "I didn't mean to imply you couldn't do it Sakura-san! I was just surprised by your sudden change in interests. These past weeks you have shown a lot of promise in taijutsu."

"What do you mean change in interest?"

"Well, shinobi don't really learn medical techniques unless they are planning to specialize in the area. It is a very intensive and time consuming specialty." Gai-sensei explains. "Who is this Kabuto? He must be quite excellent to have convinced you to switch to such a profession. What is his last name?"

Sakura's brow furrows. She hadn't even thought about it, btus he supposes Gai-sensei is right. She doesn't know a single shinobi that has learned any medical techniques besides Kabuto, and judging by the Forest of Death his fighting skills are mediocre at best. "I don't know his last name. He grew up in the orphanage. He said he was raised by a woman named….Nono Yakushi?"

Gai shows no reaction, which alerts Sakura that something is off. He reacts to everything. "Well, let's wrap this up then, shall we? You better hurry up Sakura-san if you want to make it to the hospital by six."

"Kabuto, I don't care how many times you ask me to stab you with a kunai, I will not do it." Sakura growls stubbornly, arms crossed and glaring at the young man. "That's insane."

"Sakura-chan, you need to see the technique i action. You already know the handsigns and felt how my chakra reinforced my abdomen, now you need to observe exactly what it does."

"I _will not_ stab you!"

"Sakura-chan"  
"No!"

A kunai hurls past Sakura and she jumps in surprise and lets out a scream of worry as it hits Kabuto. It ricochets off of him harmlessly.

"Sasukekun, nice of you to join us. How did you find us?" Kabuto asks calmly, ignoring Sakura's shell shocked expression.

Sasuke ignores Kabuto looking to Sakura. "Kakashi wants to speak with you."

"You're running errands now? Might want to find a sensei who will properly train you, Sasuke-kun. You're fighting Gaara of the Sand, correct?"

Sasuke glares but doesn't take the bait. "Come on." He grunts at Sakura, turning on his heel, obviously expecting her to follow.

Sakura looks apologetically to Kabuto. "Sorry, he's been in a mood since the Forest of Death. Meet here tomorrow at the same time? Now that I know I won't kill you I'll stab you next time."

Kabuto laughs lightly. "Sounds good. See you, then."

Sakura catches up to Sasuke out in the lobby and without thinking about it smacks him lightly on the shoulder. "You can't just throw kunai at people, Sasuke."

"He was asking for it."  
"That's not the point!"

Sasuke rolls his eyes and keeps walking. He slows down slightly when he notices Sakura's shorter legs are struggling to keep up. "What were you even doing with him, anyways." He interrogates. "He's not in our graduating class, or even close in age, and he's just a career genin who'll never see the battlefield. He's a glorified nurse."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I just think it would be practical to know how to heal myself, is all. Did you not see the way your kunai just bounced off of him like it was a toy?"

"Ch. Whatever."

They walk in angry silence until they reach Ichiraku. Kakashi-sensei and Naruto are already there, Naruto with a stack of bowls piled high next to him.

After ordering the dish with the least sodium, Sakura just takes a moment to take in the moment with her team. Even though she's currently irritated with Sasuke, Naruto is making obnoxious slurping noises as he eats, and Kakashi-sensei is reading his porn at the table she still loves them all. Her team has very quickly become a very central part of her life and she didn't even notice until she almost lost two of them in the forest.

"So what was so important, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura finally asks, letting her ramen cool before she digs in..

"Just wanted to see my favorite students."

"We're your only students!" naruto yells around a mouth of food.

"Hmm." Kakashi rubs the back of his head. "I suppose that also makes you my least favorite then, too."

"Hey!"

Sakura rolls her eyes and smiles. What a bunch of crazy idiots. Her crazy idiots.

"Sensei, you don't need to walk me home. It's not even dark yet, and I think I can defend myself against any common criminals pretty easily. How weak do you think I am?" Sakura grumbles and she sulks at Kakashi's side.

"I don't think you're weak, Sakura. In fact, I think you're showing more potential than ever. Gai told me your sessions are going very well."

Sakura nods. "I'm not nearly as sore now as I was two weeks ago. I might not die in this mtch, after all."

Kakashi nods. "Good. I need you to help me keep those two boys in line." He's quiet for a few moments before casually adding, "Gai mentioned something about you hallucinating about a presence. Hopefully you're re-hydrated. Be careful to take care of yourself Sakura."

Sakura is about to argue when she notices the meaningful look her sensei is giving her. She gulps down her words and nods. She hasn't seen such a look from him since he gave her orders to protect Tazuna from Zabuza.

A shiver runs up her spine. He knows. Kakashi knows and he's telling her to shut up. Now. Immediately. "Yes sensei." She breathes.


	6. Chapter 6

With exactly a week until the battle, Sakura stops pushing her body to the limit to give it a chance to rest and instead shifts to strategy. Dosu uses wind based ninjutsu to project his sound waves from his arm, so Sakura will need to find a way to either neutralize the technique or protect her eardrums from the sound waves. If she knew what frequency his soundwaves were she could generate chakra with a neutralizing effect, but unfortunately she has no idea what hertz he uses. If there were no rules about it, she would just bring noise canceling headphones or earplugs, but no equipment besides weapons are allowed so she'll need some other roundabout way of protecting herself. Lightning ninjutsu would also cut through the wind ninjutsu being used to project the sound, but Sakura's affinities are earth and water, and lightning jutsus are too chakra consuming for her, even if she could learn one before the exam (which she probably couldn't).

After nearly an hour of trying in vain to estimate the hertz of the soundwaves, a whole new solution to the problem occurs to Sakura. Maybe the best defense would be a good offense. From what she remembers in the Forest of Death and his preliminary battle against Choji, Dosu can only emit the sound waves for a few seconds before the technique times out. She's sure that type of ninjutsu is probably very chakra intensive as well, so there has to be a limit to how many times he can use it. If she uses a combination of clones, substitution, and maybe even a genjutsu, he won't know where the real Sakura is to correctly time the use of his technique. She'll just need to wait for an opening in his defenses and then she can use the body flicker technique to get close and knock him out. If she uses her body weight and momentum to add force to her punch like Gai showed her, she should be able to knock him out with one blow to the head. The only issue with this plan is that she can't afford a single mistake. If he hits her even once her eardrums will be burst and her balance and orientation will be gone and the pain will cloud her thoughts and slow her movements. She'll also have to work on her transition from the body flicker to a strike to make sure she'll have the agility and accuracy necessary for such a feat.

Sakura is running the scenario over and over again in her head as she walks to the jutsu scroll library in the Hokage Mansion. There she'll have access to many D through B-rank genjutsu to pick from to use in her battle. While she'll probably only have time to learn two or three simple techniques, in combination with clones and substitution that should be enough variety to stall until she sees an opening.

"Yo."

Sakura almost jumps out of her skin as Kakashi materializes as if from thin air. She can't wait until her body flicker is that fast. She doesn't express her awe though, instead choosing to yell at him for the rude arrival. "And where have you been for the last three weeks? Didn't you ever think to check in to see if I had questions about the scroll?" Her body language remains stiff, as she still feels uncertain around her sensei after his silent warning a week ago. She's been ignoring the presence since then. If Kakashi-sensei knows about it and doesn't seem to think it's a threat, at least to her, then at the moment it's nothing than an aggravating mystery.

"What scroll?" Kakashi questions, actually seeming genuine.

"The body flicker technique! You mean you didn't drop it off in my room?" Sakura's brow furrows in confusion.

Kakashi shakes his head. "I don't have a scroll on the body flicker technique."

"And you didn't steal one?"

"Do you think your sensei is a thief?"

"Yes."

Kakashi pretends to be offended and is about to reply when an ANBU lands from a rooftop right next to them, saying nothing. Kakashi-sensei looks at them for a moment before nodding, ruffling Sakura's hair, and disappearing in a cloud of smoke with the ANBU. Sakura rolls her eyes and is about to continue on her way to the library when she notices Sasuke a few yards away on the street. He appears to have been walking towards her and Kakashi but paused mid stride when he saw him leave. He looks just as annoyed as Sakura.

"I'm on my way to the library for a few scrolls before I'm going to a training field, if you care to join." Sakura offers, surprised that she doesn't feel any butterflies in her stomach as she speaks. She very rarely spends time alone with Sasuke, and when she does it's normally because they are waiting for their other teammates.

Sasuke stares at her for a few moments and says nothing. Then he shrugs and falls into step with her as she walks past. There's an amicable distance between them and to any observers look like close friends comfortable in each other's presence as they stroll through the streets. Sakura asks him a bit about his training as they walk, but there is mostly just a comfortable silence.

When they get to the Hokage Mansion Sasuke excuses himself to look for a scroll of his own while Sakura browses the D and C rank genjutsu. She picks up a few different scrolls on specific techniques, but finds most of them are instructions for how to either cast or create your own genjutsu. After another few minutes she picks out a detailed looking scroll on general landscape genjutsu and a scroll on the basics of creating a realistic illusion before deciding she has enough material to last her through the week.

Sasuke is already at the front desk checking out a scroll on the past twenty years' history of Konoha. Sakura gives him a questioning look, but his expression tells her to drop it and she sets her half dozen scrolls on the desk and waits patiently while the librarian logs her visitation and checkout in the ledger. When she is finished the two teammates make their way to team 7's favorite training field which is thankfully unoccupied.

Sakura goes to sit in the shade and skim the scrolls while Sasuke warms up with some target practice and water walking exercises. Sakura didn't know he had learned the skill and watches for a few moments as he wobbles before finding equilibrium again. She goes back to her reading, almost radiating smugness at how much more advanced her chakra control is compared to the Uchiha prodigy.

When she feels confident that she has a firm grasp of the theory of landscape alteration and the basic do's and don'ts of genjutsu, she weaves the hand signs necessary to channel the appropriate amount of chakra to her mind, where she is visualizing the resulting alteration she desires. When Sasuke takes a few steps and stops channeling chakra to his feet, Sakura knows it worked. She made him believe he was walking onto dry land while he was still in the center of the river. She's bubbling with laughter when he surfaces, his face fixed with a deep scowl. Sakura expands her senses to see if he is channeling chakra to retaliate and while she is relieved that his chakra is still steady and unmolded, the mysterious presence is back within her range. Her curiosity gets the better of her as she formulates a plan to once again break the genjutsu. If Kakashi-sensei didn't want her to find out the identity he should have said so. He merely implied she should stop talking about it aloud.

"Let's spar." Sakura stands abruptly and walks over to the water where Sasuke has pulled himself back onto the surface and is down on one knee as he finds his footing once again. Sakura steps lightly onto the surface of the water and easily equalizes her chakra with the ebb and flow of the surface of the water. She falls into her new and improved fighting stance that Gai-sensei helped her develop: her weight on her back leg and one arm up for protection while the other is ready to counterattack with a punch if her opponent gets in close, and near her weapon pouch if she decides to attack first.

While Sasuke still has the upper hand, Sakura is pleased to see the shock on his face as she counters most of his strikes. After a few minutes he is no longer holding back, and Sakura is hopeful that he might even activate his Sharingan. After she lands her first hit, the familiar red flashes and Sakura watches as not one, but two tomoe spin in his eye. He must have been practicing more than lightning release with Kakashi-sensei.

Sasuke attacks with a new speed she did not expect from him, rivaling that of Rock Lee. He lands his first attack with this new speed, but Sakura uses her body flicker technique to spring back and away from the attack the second time, her reflexes greatly improved from sparring with Gai-sensei. Plus, there are no weights on her legs which Sakura realizes have actually made a significant improvement to her speed in such a short time.

Sakura sees Sasuke weave the hand signs for his fireball jutsu and runs for the river. She reaches it just in time and drops beneath its surface where she uses chakra to suspend herself for a moment before using it to boost her to the surface and high into the air. She throws a barrage of shuriken which Sasuke easily deflects with a kunai and his enhanced perception.

But Sakura only meant to distract him long enough for her to use her chakra as a lance once again against the genjutsu cloaked man. Her plan to catch him completely off guard works, and she pierces his defenses. He appears on the tree branch right next to Sakura, and before he can disappear again Sakura locks eyes with a crimson pair. He is gone in less than a second again, but Sakura knows what she saw. When she falls back to the water's surface, she is too stunned to remember to catch herself on the surface and plunges back under. She comes back up spluttering and is about to yell for Sasuke when a very powerful genjutsu descends and everything fades to black.

There is a man with bandages covering most of his body. He wears traditional garb and walks with a cane. Sakura feels as though she should recognize him, and when the scene materializes more something clicks. It's one of the village elders. Danzo? Yes, Shimura Danzo.

"We can't wait for them to strike. It's too big of a security risk. What if some of the other clans rebel as well? It will rip this village apart. The threat from Kumo is too great for unrest within our ranks." He taps his cane on the wooden floor for emphasis.

"This is genocide we are talking about, Danzo."  
"No, this is the preservation of the Village, Hiruzen. The Will of Fire. Do not let the Curse of Hatred stamp out our way of life." Danzo takes a step forward to place a hand on the desk of the Third.

"... If I agreed, who could even carry out such a task? What you ask-"

"The heir. Itachi. He will do it. If you command it of him. I have seen his files, Hiruzen. I know what he is capable of."

The Third looks angry and conflicted. Sakura feels a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she realizes what is happening. What they're talking about. Itachi. That's the name of Sasuke's brother. She read a book about the Uchiha Massacre that she wasn't supposed to have access to. She snuck it from the restricted section of the library a year ago when she was trying to find out more about her crush. She put it back quickly after a few pages and never spoke of it to anyone. She didn't know how to even begin to understand the trauma Sasuke experienced so she made the decision to ignore it. Selfish, yes, but also easy.

"Summon him." The Third says.

Nothing can prepare Sakura for the sudden change in the genjutsu. Blood. Terror. Carnage. Death. She feels like she can't breathe. But she can't look away. The genjutsu won't let her. She's suffocating from her endless screams and can't escape the slaughter.

For days everything is black. Black and cool and soothing. No bad thoughts. No thoughts about what she saw. What that genjutsu did to her. What the real thing must have done to Sasuke. That she exists in a world where something so horrible can happen. She doesn't want the soothing emptiness to go away, so she remains in its protective embrace.

But after days someone starts dragging her out. It's gentle at first, but soon becomes impatient, like an annoyed older sibling tugging on the arm of the younger. Sakura stubbornly resists, and manages to remain in the black cocoon of her own making. Kind of. She can hear people now; faintly, but they're there. She recognizes Kakashi-sensei's voice.

"I told you to leave her out of this. It has nothing to do with her." He sounds angry.

"She is a prodigy, Kakashi. We need her on our side. You heard what happened in the forest. You know whom she's been hanging out with. That snake will steal her away if we aren't careful and turn her into a weapon like we've never seen. I've been folowing his experimentation. You… you don't know how far it's progressed. He's nearly perfected it, that thing he did to-"

"Enough." Kakashi's voice is firm as it cuts off the unknown man's voice. "It won't come to that. Her training has been progressing well with Gai, and with Tsunade returned to the village I'm sure she'll take her on as an apprentice. She'll be fine."

"That's what I thought when I left this mess to you guys, but look how it turned out."

Kakashi is silent for a pause before quietly replying. "You know nothing else different could ahve ben done. It was the only optiuon. He moved too quickly. We didn't have what we needed to-"

"I know. My point is, I'm done taking chances. She has to be made aware of the danger she has stumbled into." The man insists.

"She's too young. She's barely thirteen." Kakashi-sensei is angry again.

"He was thirteen."

"He's different. You know that."

"She put herself in her own genjutsu to escape what you were doing to her! Tsunade could only partially remove her from it this morning without doing too much mental damage!"

"Which only proves her abilities are even more exemplary than we thought. She has just started to experiment with basic landscape alteration and she can already do this!" The man insists.

"She's not ready." Kakashi-sensei sounds firm. "I'm her sensei, I know her. She's not ready. Give me time. I'll prepare her. As soon as this mess of an exam is over with, I'll send her off with Tsunade and Naruto with Jiraiya. I'll take Sasuke and we'll keep them out of harm's way until they're strong enough to actually help us. We just need more time."

There's silence. Sakura can feel the tension even still under the genjutsu.

"Fine. Suppress the memories, but you don't have forever, Kakashi. You better watch her and her teammates closely over the next few days. I have other orders."

"I liked it more when you just shadowed us everywhere _silently_." Kakashi-sensei growls.

"Good to talk to you again too, Kakashi-nii."


	7. Chapter 7

"So you remember nothing? Not even what color his hair or eyes were?"

"I don't even remember a man, Hokage-sama." Sakura repeats, for the twentieth time. All she remembers from the day is sparring with Sasuke, and the next thing she knew she was coughing up water on the riverbank with her worried looking teammate hovering over her before everything went black once again. Apparently a man appeared in a tree right next to her in the middle of the spar and then Sakura dropped into the river and surfaced briefly before passing out.

"Alright, well I want you to report to me immediately if anything comes back to you. With the exams next week, we need to know of everyone within our borders to ensure the safety of all of those attending." The Hokage finishes filling out the report he was writing as she and Sasuke were questioned. "You are dismissed to the care of your sensei. Kakashi should be waiting outside."

When her and Sasuke join their teacher on the street, yet more bad news is waiting for Sakura. Apparently, Dosu was attacked last night and his body was found this morning. "So I have to fight Shikamaru?! But I haven't been training for that!"

She groans and slouches as the mental fatigue of the day presses down on her even harder. She had such a good strategy formed for Dosu, and now it's worthless. Shikamaru is the king of strategy. For every plan she comes up with, he'll figure them all out and have a dozen potential counterplans.

"You've had a long day, Sakura. Why don't you let us walk you home and you just enjoy the rest of the day with your family. I'll meet with you tomorrow around noon and give you a few pointers on going toe to toe with a Nara over lunch." Kakashi's eyes close and the corners crinkle, indicating that he is smiling at her.

"Only if we get dumplings, and you actually pay." She concedes, deciding that giving herself the rest of the day off to process everything is probably for the best.

While something still feels off, Sakura has stopped worrying incessantly over the mysterious incident by the day of the finals. She couldn't figure out why, but for some reason she was obsessively checking her surroundings by using her chakra as a probe for others. She never found anything out of the ordinary though, and convinced herself she was just being paranoid.

It's only 7am and contestants don't have to report to the dome until 9:30, so Sakura takes her time with her morning bath and getting ready before eating the giant breakfast her mom has prepared for her. Sakura devours the food before heading to the backyard to do some light yoga to loosen up her muscles. At quarter to nine she goes up to her room to get ready for the exam and finds Ino waiting for her, a bag from Sakura's favorite kunoichi boutique on her arm. "You have to look your best for your match today, Forehead. Thousands of people will be watching. You don't want to look like a scrub with all of those eyes on you." She laughs when Sakura's face pales.

"Thanks for the pep talk." Sakura mutters, going to her vanity to brush the snarls out of her hair and wrap her hair with bandages in a low ponytail. Her thick hair always giver her a headache if it's up too high, and it's in the way when it's down so this is her only option. She thinks it looks homely, but in a fight that's not what matters.

"I'm serious, though! Sasuke-kun will be there too." Ino winks playfully. "I bet he'll be watching very intently."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "He doesn't see me that way, Pig, and I don't really see him like that anymore either. We're just teammates. Friends. In fact, he's kind of a jerk."

Ino is confused. "Wait, who are you and what have you done with Sakura? What did he do?"

"Well he-" Sakura spots the clock and quickly runs to her closet to get dressed. "I'll tell you all about being his teammate later, but I need to get ready for the exams!"

Ino rifles through the bag on Sakura's bed. "Which is why I brought this! You won't be promoted to chunin if you don't show up in style!" She waves a red kimono style tank top out in front of her. Sakura already has her chest bindings and black spandex on and emerges from her closet to look at the article. "Oh pig! You even had the Haruno crest embroidered on the back!"

Sakura quickly pulls on the shirt and Ino hands her a thick black belt with an attached weapon's pouch. Sakura puts that on as well and transfers her shuriken and kunai to the new pouch, reaching back and finding it's even easier than reaching down to her thigh. "Perfect!"

Ino accompanies Sakura to the dome and waits with her and the other contestants until one of the proctors comes for all of them to take them to their waiting room. Ino hugs Sakura right in front of Shikamaru before pulling on her eyelid and sticking out her tongue at her teammate. "Forehead is going to beat you so bad that big brain of yours will be mush."

Shikamaru is pulled out of his day dream by the challenge Ino has issued. "I won't lose to a girl." Is his reply, which spikes both girls' tempers.

"That's it! I don't care if you're my teammate! Sakura, make sure they never want to promote him to chunin!"

She can't believe it. Naruto actually defeated Neji. The Hyuga is flat on his back, unable to move. Medics have to come out with a stretcher and remove him from the battlefield so the tournament can continue. While bruised and more sluggish than usual, Naruto walks on his own toward the exit that will lead him back up to the other contestants.

"Where's Sasuke? He's up next." Shikamaru comments, ignoring the dirty look Sakura is still giving him for his earlier misogynistic comment.

"He'll be here." She mutters, although she is beginning to worry. Apparently he also picked up Kakashi-sensei's tardiness in the last month as well.

Naruto is already with the other contestants again by the time the announcement is made. "We are postponing the match between Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara of the Sand until after the next matchup of Haruno Sakura and Nara Shikamaru."

The boos are so loud Sakura swears she can feel the stadium shake with the soundwaves. She is about to turn and head down the stairs to the entrance to the battlefield when a strong smack to her back sends her over the railing of the balcony. She manages to channel chakra to her palms in time to grab the wall and hold herself in place, but Shikamaru plummets past her, as his reflexes are not fast enough to catch himself. Sakura laughs as Naruto and the Nara heir argue loudly while she calmly makes her way to the ground. Naruto doesn't know it, but he just inadvertently helped her towards a promotion. Not only did he give her the opportunity to demonstrate her reflexes, but also her proficiency with wall walking and concentrating chakra to different parts of her body with ease.

When Genma officially starts the match, the two opponents do not react immediately. Instead they are staring one another down, planning their moves and counterattacks, Shikamaru admittedly thinking much further ahead than even the highly intelligent Sakura is capable of. Both take notice of the giant hole Naruto created, Shikamaru storing it away as a potential way to sneak attack Sakura, and Sakura remembering to avoid its vicinity so that Shikamaru cannot catch her by surprise. They analyse each other as well, Shikamaru evaluating the costs and benefits of Sakura's fighting stance and what they indicate about her past month of training, and Sakura being annoyed by the fact that Shikamaru is slouching with his hands in his pockets. After nearly a full two minutes of just standing there, the crowd is loudly booing again. This seems to snap Shikamaru out of his strategizing and he looks to the sky as if he is watching the clouds.

Sakura is angered by his cockiness and decides to attack first, throwing a barrage of shuriken, which forces him to pay attention to her. He jumps to his left and rolls before running for the cover of the lone tree on the opposite side of the arena. Sakura is about to give chase when she is struck by the idea to take advantage of his turned back to create a few clones so she can surround and confuse him. She also uses a minor genjutsu so that each of the clones will appear to have a shadow so that he won't be able to so easily figure out which is the real Sakura. She has the advantage of him being unaware of her new repertoire of jutsu, although it is rather limited. The only genjutsus she knows are landscape based, and there are no rivers to trick him into walking into like there was with Sasuke.

Moments before Sakura catches up to Shikamaru, the cloud that had been drifting lazily across the sun passes and she belatedly realizes this means Shikamaru will be able to utilize his shadow techniques. It's a cloudy forecast today, which explains why Shikamaru was watching the sky earlier. He was estimating how long he had to wait until he could use his clan jutsu. Sakura decides using a solid bit of her chakra to create enough clones to distract Shikamaru is worth it so she can use body flicker to get as far away as possible. A second later she is on almost the opposite side of the arena, her back to the wall of it. Her shadow is hidden within the wall's, so she is safe as long as she can stay within two yards of the wall… great. Shikamaru has dispelled all of her clones already and is making his way to her from across the arena. Sakura's eyes flicker to the sky looking for the next cloud that will cross the path of the sun. She approximates that it will take about five minutes, so she braces herself for a lot of dodging and careful foot placement.

She reaches the two minute mark before one of Shikamaru's shuriken imbeds itself in her bicep. Biting her lip to keep from screaming, Sakura wrenches it out and throws it back before running up the shadow covered wall. With her hands hidden in front of her body, she quickly weaves the hand signs for a landscape genjutsu while also mixing in a few so that it will target Shikamaru in particular. She doesn't have the kind of control or practice it would take to ensnare the whole crowd, so she'll have to hope she can at least trick the Nara. She imagines the cloud moved back to where it was thirty seconds ago before weaving a few more hand signals so that it will look like she was just taking her time creating a few clones. Shikamaru instantly dispels those too, and it's all Sakura can do to make it to the five minute mark. A shadow from the cloud falls over the entire arena, and Sakura looks down and is pleased to see Shikamaru isn't retreating and is still trying to lure her into the area that he perceives as still being exposed to sunlight. He has fallen for her illusion.

Sakura weaves another genjutsu, which is really just an alteration to the one she has already cast to make sure he will see a shadow when she lands. She launches off of the wall when he releases another volley and lands where the edge of the shadow of the wall used to be. Shikamaru is on her in an instant, weaving the handsigns for his shadow possession jutsu. There is still thirteen seconds of sunlight in his genjutsu skewed perception, so his shock is very evident when his shadow does not extend to intertwine with her own. Sakura takes his bewilderment as a chance to use her body flicker technique to get in close. She doesn't try to aim, instead plowing into him and landing on top of him, quickly pulling a kunai from her back pouch and pressing it to his throat.

"Look who was just beat by a girl."


End file.
